November 27, 2006

Are there any law-school-related patents?

As discussed here in a law.com article and at great length here at Patently-O, tomorrow the Supreme Court will hear argument in KSR v. Teleflex, which could be a landmark case for patent law. This SCOTUS spotlight on patent law got me to thinking about whether there existed any notable (or even not-so-notable) patents relating to law schools.

For almost a decade now, as explained here, business methods have been patentable and the US Patent and Trademark Office has a special classification for teaching methods under a heading of "Education and Demonstration." In addition, there are certainly plenty of technological devices used in law schools that present patentable subject-matter. And yet, in a decade of law teaching, I cannot recall any patent issues even arising in my day-to-day law school work (even though copyright issues arise all the time).

Comments

Four Berkman professors/staff hold a patent in the "Question Tool," a software tool designed to help large audiences interact with a small set of presenters. They are kicking around the idea of using it to advance a copyleft-style idea, but as applied to patent (and in particular, in reaction to Blackboard). See more here: http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/cyberone/wiki/The_Open_Patent_Project.

As Gene Koo references, Blackboard has a patent on e-learning systems, which has consequences for universities, including, of course, law schools. The Chronicle of Higher Education had a cover story on the patent a couple of weeks ago. Here's Tim O'Reilly's take on the patent.

One wonders: If only Socrates (or Langdell) had sought a business method patent, they might both have been richer (at least for a short time)!
--Anupam

I spoke with Prof. Andrea Johnson of California Western School of Law last week, and coming out of her work with Carnegie on assessment tools for learning outcomes, she has a patent pending on, as I understand it, a software wizard that help professors develop objective (multiple-choice) tests. While some law professors are using it, apparently it is aimed at a wider market encompassing secondary as well as higher education.